The brain and the spinal cord are connected with the peripheral parts of the body by nerves. They are formed by bundles of axons originated from neurons whose cell body may reside in the brain, in the spinal cord or in the peripheral nervous ganglia. The primary targets of some nerves, called motor nerves, are the muscles which allow movements by acting on the bones of the skeleton. Galvani ‘s original experiments were performed on nerve-muscle preparations dissected from frogs, a very suitable preparation which can be experimentally manipulated for remarkably long time.
With this model, Galvani was able to suggest that the electrical forces travelling from the nerves to the muscles were responsible for muscle contractions and, therefore, for movements.
1) The human nervous and muscular systems.
Conduction of the electrical signal from the central nervous system to the muscles.
